We were lucky to catch up with Tanishka Juneja recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tanishka, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
To be honest, I was always inclined towards some or the other art form while growing up. Whether it was dancing, painting, singing or writing. I never thought that I would pursue a career in either of these fields, because all those were just hobbies, but deep down, I knew I was meant to do something creative in life. I remember that I was always fascinated by the fashion magazines that would be delivered at my home. The first thing I would do after looking at the celebrity on the cover was to search for his/her cover interview. I would enjoy reading it more than anything else. Now when I look back, I realise it was then that the seed of writing was planted in my head, irrespective of the medium – journalism, screenwriting, creative writing or the literary world. And what’s interesting is that I’ve tried my hand at all these mediums and I love that.
So, after high school, I enrolled myself in a hospitality institute but soon, I understood that I wasn’t meant to be here. My mother made me realise that I should consider writing as a career option. Then, I switched to studying journalism and alongside wrote my first novel hoping to make my parents proud. It was then that I began to accept that this is what I’m meant to do and there’s no going back. I don’t want to limit myself to doing just one thing in life. I want different creative labels attached with my name but not just for the sake of it. I want to excel in each one of them too.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Knowing myself, I’m sure I won’t take just “a minute”, but I’ll try my best to hold back on my storytelling skills. (No promises!)
Hi, I’m Tanishka Juneja, an Author, Journalist, Screenwriter and Director from India. I published my first novel called Let’s Rise in Love when I was 19, along with a few short stories that were published in various anthologies. My book is available on Amazon so, do check it out. The book’s really special because it was a surprise for my dad, as a ‘thank you’ gesture for always having my back and letting me follow my passion. But I truly became a part of the entertainment industry shortly after COVID hit, which I feel is an interesting story. I was studying in Singapore when during COVID everything came to a standstill. I wasn’t allowed to work on my student visa but with the work from home trend, I thought of trying my luck and sent out emails to various fashion and lifestyle magazines in India requesting for a feature. Where two of my articles got featured in a magazine (which I worked for later on), one of the companies, Brandcorps Media Network offered me an internship instead. They had 2-3 magazines under them and that’s how my journey started. I was still studying in Singapore but at the same time, I was writing interviews for the magazines in India. It felt unreal at that time but it had become the “new normal”. That was an interesting experience to say the least. Some of the interviews were on text/via voice notes, some on call and if I was lucky, they were on Zoom. From a three-month internship, it got extended to six months, because they were happy with my work. During that time, I came back to India and balanced my work, studies and family time. I remember very well that I was at a naturopathy centre with my family during Diwali break and I was asked to interview the renowned Bollywood actor Boman Irani on Zoom. I was still an intern so that was a huge deal for me. I only had few hours to prepare myself mentally but as soon as the interview started, it felt like a normal conversation and that’s the best part about it. After the internship ended, I freelanced with a few other magazines and liked the flexibility of my job. Whether I was on a vacation or attending a destination wedding, I would always carry my laptop because you never know when an interview could be lined up. But to be honest, those have been some of my fondest memories.
One thing that I feel I didn’t get to experience was the “office life”. I was working in the comfort of my home and had the luxury to work according to my suitability, which was a huge bonus, but I never got to experience the professional world practically. But irrespective, I’m grateful for everything I learnt. I know I’m not the first or last person to work in this field or wanting to make it big in the industry. Everyone knows that it’s a competitive industry, but whenever a celebrity would appreciate my questions or way of making them feel like it was an informal chit-chat rather than an investigative interview or say that “I’ve asked them the right questions, which is rare”, it would make up for all the complaints I had. It’s moments like these that restore your faith in yourself and your decision of pursuing this path, and also motivate you to keep going.
I worked for about three years, including some time off and switching jobs in between. In August 2022, I applied for a screenwriting program in New York Film Academy and got accepted. I was supposed to be in LA in January 2023, but my visa had some issues so I had to defer to the August intake. I had left my job in November but now that I had a few spare months, I freelanced for another magazine because I didn’t want to sit idle and do nothing. But if I’m being honest, I was nervous about becoming a student again at the age of 24. I knew that taking a long break (of two years) and then getting back to studying would come with its own set of challenges; But in my life, I’ve never had things the easy way. Wouldn’t that make life boring? And deep down, I always wanted to be a storyteller so, I was all set to fulfil that dream.
It’s funny how the first (student) film I worked on as a Co-Writer, Script Supervisor (and later a Background Actor) was related to my oldest love and passion, which is dance. And not just any dance form, Indian classical dance, i.e., Bharatanatyam, which is something I’m trained in. Firsts are always special but this made the experience even more special. And not to mention, I got a new name that day, and since then, I’ve been fondly referred to as the “set vibe”, (not bragging at all) and I love that.
One thing that I’m extremely proud of is the fact that for my first short film as a Writer and Director, my team and I built an elevator set from scratch inside an apartment. And trust me when I say this, for a second even I thought we were shooting inside a real elevator. I like challenging myself and this one was indeed a big challenge but with all the blood, sweat and tears, we managed to pull it off. One thing that I learnt during this experience (apart from writing easier scripts) was that if you’re truly passionate about something, you’ll always find a way out and God will be there to guide you. It is a challenging industry but as my professor said, you must always keep your mind open and protect your heart.
I recently finished working on the first draft of a TV Pilot (drama) and a rewrite of my feature script (mystery-drama). I’m proud to say that the TV Pilot is based in India and is inspired from the women in my life, the ones I’ve grown up watching. While working on these two projects I realised what my voice is, as an artist. I like adding an element of mystery to any plot that I develop because I like keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Here’s hoping that I’m able to do exactly that!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Creating art, whether it’s a painting, coming up with a dance choreography or writing a script, is an act of perseverance. From the outside, it might seem easy, but only those who do it for a living know the struggle in order to reach the finish line. I feel like there are several rewarding aspects of being an artist but I’ll talk about the ones that I truly believe in.
One – Everyone has an opinion on something and you can’t possibly expect to change that instantly with your piece your work. But, when you at least force them to think and give them a new perspective about an issue or subject that already exists in the world, I think you’ve won as an artist. The fact that you get to share how you see the world is a blessing in itself and if used wisely, you can surprise the audience by giving them something they never thought of before. Like they say, think out of the box.
Two – As an artist, since you have the creative freedom to create your own world, rules and give birth to characters, you get to live so many different lives, feel different emotions and live their journey just by sitting in front of your laptop. How satisfying is that! Nobody from any other profession gets that privilege. You have the power to decide what happens in your character’s life and that is truly fascinating.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Well, I’ll start off by saying that I’m no expert when it comes to social media. But from my experience, I can tell you that I’ve always believed in following these 3 R’s. (No, I’m not talking about reduce, reuse and recycle.) It’s being Real, Raw and Relatable. It’s important to be honest to yourself and most importantly to your audience. Gone are those times when people would troll you for putting your real self out there, in fact, people applaud that nowadays. I mean, there’ll always be some anonymous faceless trolls who’ll spread unnecessary hate but the majority of the public appreciates people who have the guts to be transparent with their audience.
I know it’s easier said than done, but trust me, if you look at my Instagram profile, majority of my posts are personal anecdotes that I share. I like sharing my life experiences, any personal stories that I have or interesting incidents that happen in my day-to-day life. I know people have short attention span and not everybody is interested in reading long captions, but those who do, often tell me that they could connect with what I’ve written and relate to it or it felt as if I was directly talking to them. Now that’s the kind of validation a creator is always looking for.
So, you need to be authentic and not decide your content based on the algorithm. It’ll keep on changing, trends may come and go, but the only thing that remains constant is quality content. You might be tempted to follow those trends and that’s not a bad thing, but even when you do, make sure to put an element of yourself in it. Make it your own. And the same thing applies to the number of followers you have. I’ve seen a lot of accounts with hundreds and thousands of followers but the likes on their posts are barely a few thousands. So, the numbers don’t define your art. I don’t have many followers myself. and there are times when I post a pretty picture of myself with just a one-liner caption that ends up getting a few hundred likes; But when I post long captions, I don’t end up getting the same amount of engagement and that’s fine. That’s the nature of how social media works. But that doesn’t stop me. I call Instagram my diary, like how we used to do diary entries when we were young (or at least I did). So, I like pouring my heart out in my dairy, which is Instagram, and sharing it with my audience.
In all, I just want to say that the audience will love you for who you are, so don’t be afraid to put your real self out there because every human is unique and that’s our strength. So, embrace it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanishka.juneja/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanishka.juneja.7/
- Linkedin: https://in.linkedin.com/in/tanishka-juneja
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tanishkajuneja57
Image Credits
Jagruti Savant